… This week, Trump suffered a major defeat when he couldn’t force a House vote for the healthcare bill he endorsed. …
Power is cumulative; it rests on what the late presidential scholar Richard E. Neustadt called “reputation.”
“The greatest danger to a president’s influence,” he wrote, is whether other politicians expect him to succeed or fail. “If his failures seem to form a pattern, the consequence is bound to be a loss of faith in his effectiveness next time.”
That’s why Trump has even more on the line in his next battle, over tax reform — an issue, he’ll find, that’s every bit as complicated as healthcare. CONT.
Doyle McManus, Los Angeles Times